Not-for-profit investment service launched for smaller charities

Seonaid Mackenzie, managing partner at Sturgeon Ventures, says banks and investment companies don't cater well for clients with less than £20m to invest

Seonaid Mackenzie

A new not-for-profit investment service has been launched for charities with small amounts of money to invest.

The service is run by Sturgeon Ventures, a company that provides regulatory back-office services to professional investors, and will serve charities that have between £250,000 and £20m to invest. It will provide cash management and invest in fixed income products, such as government bonds.

Seonaid Mackenzie, managing partner at Sturgeon, said that she decided to start the service because she saw that many smaller charities with small endowments, such as schools and churches, struggled to get effective investment advice.

"We found that charities with less than £20m to invest were struggling to get advice," she said. "Banks and investment companies don’t want lots of little clients. No one is interested in helping these smaller organisations. As a result they are sitting with the money in a deposit account at the bank, not earning enough interest to cover inflation."

The company will charge fees of "up to 1 per cent", and will aim only to cover the costs of managing the portfolio, she said. Any profits it generates will be donated to the Wellness Fund Foundation, a foundation for children who self-harm, which is run through the Charities Aid Foundation.